Imitation, conscious will and social conditioning

Abstract Rationale Mephedrone is a frequently overused drug of abuse that belongs to the group of novel psychoactive substances. Although its mechanism of action, as well as toxic and psychoactive effects, has been widely studied, the role of different factors that could contribute to the increased vulnerability to mephedrone abuse is still poorly understood. Objectives The aim of the presented study was to assess the impact of several factors (sex differences, social-conditioning, and chronic mild unpredictable stress — CMUS) on the liability to mephedrone-induced reward in Wistar rats. Methods The rewarding effects of mephedrone in male and female rats were assessed using the conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure. Furthermore, the impact of social factor and stress was evaluated in male rats using social-CPP and CMUS-dependent CPP, respectively. Results Mephedrone induced classic-CPP in female (10 mg/kg), as well as in male (10 and 20 mg/kg) rats. However, the impact of mephedrone treatment during social-CPP was highly dose-dependent as the rewarding effects of low dose of mephedrone (5 mg/kg; non-active in classic-CPP) were potentiated when administered during social-conditioning. Interestingly, social-conditioning with a higher dose of 20 mg/kg (that induced classic-CPP) was able to reverse these effects. Finally, CMUS potentiated rewarding effects of a low dose of mephedrone (5 mg/kg) and increased the level of corticosterone in rats’ prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. Conclusions Altogether, the presented results give new insight into possible factors underlying the vulnerability to mephedrone abuse and can serve as a basis for further studies assessing mechanisms underlying observed effects.

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Affect, Cue-Giving and Political Attitude Formation: Survey Evidence in Support of a Social Conditioning Interpretation

The Journal of Politics ◽

10.2307/2129595 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 41 (1) ◽

pp. 75-105 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Donald T. Cundy

Keyword(s):

Attitude Formation ◽

Political Attitude ◽

Social Conditioning

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A study of fuzzy modeling analysis of factors influencing socially regulation of learning performance in an online environment

Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems ◽

10.3233/jifs-189724 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Chengzheng Li ◽

Ying Peng ◽

Peng Peng ◽

Lei Cao

Keyword(s):

Goal Setting ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Group Performance ◽

Learning Performance ◽

Trust Building ◽

Team Assessment ◽

Social Conditioning ◽

Team Supervision ◽

Task Strategy ◽

Main Factors

Investigating the factors influencing the performance of social conditioning in the network environment is the core issue for improving academic performance. Through the search of existing literature, the paper analyzes the main factors that influence social conditioning learning in current research, and through the questionnaire survey and in-depth processing of the raw data, the advanced behavioral indicators related to learning are obtained and analyzed by Spearman correlation coefficient and fuzzy modeling in machine learning. The results showed that the twelve dimensions of motivation regulation, trust building, efficacy management, cognitive strategy, time management, goal setting, task strategy, peer support, team assessment, help seeking, environment construction, and team supervision were significantly related to group performance, with team supervision having a significant negative relationship with group performance. In addition, trust building, team supervision and environment construction were the main factors for online social learning, effectiveness management, task strategy, peer support and help-seeking were the secondary factors, while motivation regulation, cognitive strategies, goal setting and team assessment had little impact on the final performance. The findings have some implications for the optimization of social conditioning learning support services and the improvement of social conditioning learning performance.

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The Chevalier’s Secret: Emma Hardinge Britten and the Dawn of American Occultism

Literature and Theology ◽

10.1093/litthe/frz034 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Robert C Thompson

Keyword(s):

The Self ◽

Human Spirit ◽

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ◽

Structured Approach ◽

Conscious Will ◽

And Training

Abstract In 1876, prominent spiritualist medium and writer Emma Hardinge Britten published two books written by the Chevalier Louis de B., arguably a pseudonym she used to disguise her own opinions about the nature of the soul and the power of the occult will. As American spiritualism fell into disrepute—dogged by cases of fraudulent mediums and a culture of excess—occultism, typified at the time by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, rose up to replace it. Britten saw the potential that Blavatsky’s views on the development of the conscious will, the existence of a spirit hierarchy, and training with skilled adepts could have for spiritualism’s much less structured approach to supernaturalism, but she worried over occultism’s dismissive attitude toward a unified concept of the soul. Blavatsky tended to fracture the self into several parts in her writing, dismissed the prospect of human spirit communication, and challenged the notion that all human souls were immortal. I argue that Britten created the Chevalier in order to challenge spiritualist orthodoxy while maintaining her identification as a medium who believed sincerely in the spiritualist concept of the soul. I discuss three major areas in which Britten sought to negotiate a space between spiritualism and occultism: the consequences of mediumistic passivity, the existence of non-human spirits, and the predominance of a secret Indian brotherhood at the head of an occult hierarchy.

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SOCIAL CONDITIONALITY OF CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR CRIMINAL OFFENSES IN THE SPHERE OF PROTECTION OF CULTURAL VALUES

Juridical science ◽

10.32844/2222-5374-2020-103-1.07 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 50-56

Author(s):

В. Я. Качмар

Keyword(s):

Cultural Heritage ◽

Cultural Values ◽

Criminal Law ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Criminal Liability ◽

Cultural Development ◽

Social Harm ◽

Heritage Sites ◽

Social Conditioning ◽

Criminal Offenses

The problem of criminal law protection of the cultural heritage of mankind is one of the most relevant in modern criminal law. Law enforcement practice has difficulties in qualifying the destruction or damage of cultural property. Most often, this is due to the definition of a set of crimes while encroaching on both religious feelings and cultural values. The urgency of solving this problem is growing due to the threat of destruction of cultural values due to man-made and natural disasters, as well as as a result of anthropogenic activities. These circumstances determine the relevance of the study of the problems of social conditionality of criminal liability for destruction or damage to cultural heritage sites, cultural values. The purpose of the article is to analyze the factors of social conditionality of criminal liability for criminal offenses in the field of protection of cultural values, the task of the article is to characterize the types of social harm as the basis of factors of social conditionality of these offenses. The article examines the factors of social conditioning of criminal liability for criminal offenses in the field of protection of cultural values, gives a characteristic of the types of social harm as the basis of the factors of social conditioning of these offenses. The article proves that the destruction or damage of cultural heritage objects, natural complexes, cultural values cause harm, is expressed not only in the direct loss of unique objects and objects that accumulate the centuries-old spirit of history, the foundations of material and spiritual culture, but also personify the absolute beauty and perfection of human talent and abilities, but also in the destruction of the very centuries-old spirit of the historical and cultural development of mankind, therefore, the harm from damage to this or that historical monument is necessarily reflected in all the above areas. It is concluded that the destruction or damage of cultural heritage sites are characterized by encroachment on public morality, which is expressed in the active influence of destruction or damage of cultural heritage sites included in the single state register of cultural heritage sites, identified cultural heritage sites , natural complexes, objects taken under state protection, or cultural values on cultural, historical, archeological, scientific bases of public life.

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